Any use for an old router?

I have an old wireless router here. I'm sure I can't sell it because the company is no longer in business. Is there any way to turn this into a network extender or other gadget? It's a 4G modem for IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wireless Networking.

 

I remember my old Netgear router had the ability to act as a network extender aka repeater. Personally, I checked the router's configuration page through my internet browser to see if it had the option enabled. (Try 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.2.1) From there, you can get a better picture of the functionalities your old router is capable of. All that is left is to dedicate a day to following the guides posted online for that particular change that you wanted to make. Unfortunately, that was as far as I went since the online guides to turning a router into a wireless repeater/extender required a learning curve. As a tip, make sure that when searching for an online guide, you also include the router that you are trying to alter.

 

You can still sell it for cheap usually, even if it's only $5. The thing is that I guarantee you there is some broke college kid that just wants a swap-in router for whatever connection they have unless your primary local ISP gives routers with their modems now like a lot of them are doing,

 

You could always see if OpenWRT (https://openwrt.org/) runs on it - it will let you do all sorts of clever things with old routers .

 

Since you haven't mentioned the model, I can't be a hundred percent sure, but if you are a tech enthusiast, try getting the ddWRT firmware on your router. From making into a range extender to enabling port forwarding and setting up a server at home, there's a whole lot of things you can possibly do with a old router.

Best.

 

Home Automation and INTRAnet of Things! That's what you should use it for. I mean people keep talking about the Internet of Things and what not. But, the fact is until that happens, you need to have a network that sort of connects all of your home devices without intruding on the other function of a router, which is to connect to the internet.

Instead of the internet of things, think intranet of things. All you need to do is connect your cams, sensors/detectors, remotes, lights, garage door, etc. to your old router. I know it's a "broad" idea and you have a 4g router, which may not seem ideal, but I think you'll be able to make it work.

 

Wll you can actually sell it for a cheaper price out the streets or you can just give it away to any relative you might have in need of a router, you never know, you could also save it as a spare router, remember that they're not eternal and they might get broken when you dont even imagine, in conclution you should just save it in case you need it in further occations.

 

I would want to contribute to this thread but I'm not that techie. However, I used to be in the position where the warehouse was under me. There were a lot of old routers that the custodian told me have no more use because they were replaced by new models. However, an old router can still work for old network setup. But I guess if they were in the warehouse then they were of no use to our company anymore.